The Low Carbon Economy Ltd

New model outlines carbon emissions targets

A new model has been developed which details the maximum emissions that the world can produce if it hopes to meet climate change targets.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg used data on the levels of carbon that can be absorbed by the oceans and forests in their calculations, which is the first time such information has been used in this type of model.

According to the research, worldwide emissions levels will peak at ten billion tonnes by 2015. This figure must then be decreased by 56 percent by the year 2050 and reach virtually zero by the end of the century if warming is to be kept within the two degree limit.

The study did not rule out that after the year 2100 temperatures may continue to rise in the long term.

Erich Roeckner, a researcher on the study, explained: "It will take centuries for the global climate system to stabilise."

Secretary of state for energy and climate change Chris Huhne recently claimed in his first Annual Energy Statement that the UK is on track to make emissions cuts of 36 percent by 2020.